WBB: Dribbling in high heels? No problem for this British baller

You might not know her name, but you’ve likely witnessed her talent.

Jessica Eadsforth-Yates, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Manchester, England, can dribble in high heels, as she showed off in an advertisement for the Emirates NBA Cup.

Her commercial debut, however, has been preceded by lots of real work on the hardwood, from her two seasons playing NCAA Division II basketball at Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia to her current stint with the Westfield Health Sheffield Hatters in the Women’s British Basketball League.

Eadsforth-Yates recently spoke to Swish Appeal about her basketball beginnings, her adventures in modeling and, yes, how she ended up in a NBA commercial. Some highlights from the conversation include:

On how she became the “Emirates Girl” for the Fly Emirates/NBA commercial collaboration:

Everything came through via Instagram. I’ve started posting a lot of off-court stuff and I love fashion, dressing up, being a girl, because obviously we’re always in shorts, so we’re being like guys most of the time, so I always try to be as feminine on court and off court as possible.

So I was just posting a lot on my Instagram and I got reached out to last summer to do a Nike campaign, which was huge, it’s like every kid’s dream, and it was in collaboration with the Beats by Dre headphones, so two of the biggest brands ever. Sadly, for whatever reason, at the last minute they’ve decided to go with a male basketball player and I was absolutely heartbroken. I spoke to the guy who got me the job and was like, “You owe me one.”

A few months later a get a call from him and he was like, “Jess, I’ve got the perfect job for you,” and I was a bit apprehensive because at this point I haven’t actually taken a job yet, and when he explained it, my jaw was on the floor.

On the move to West Virginia from the United Kingdom:

I didn’t know this, but that school is a small liberal arts school and it’s set in the West Virginia mountains. It’s beautiful, picturesque, like in the John Denver song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” You can definitely why that song was written. And it was actually played after every game.

And we actually had more international students at the school than Americans, so through basketball, soccer, tennis, it was very global. I absolutely loved it because I was with Brazilians, Swedish people, Finnish people and all of my fellow Europeans.

A special thank you to Nasos Kyriakou of The Players Pick for arranging the interview.